i'm a pretty serious gardener. i consistently get more honey from my hives here at the house than any other location. i'm sure that that is because of all the bee friendly plants i grow mass quantities of. i monitored which critter worked which plant & planted accordingly. you can always find a wide variety of pollinators working my beds. & what are the odds of my ending up in a house with a linden tree in the yard?!? i plant lots of dutch white, ladino, & alsike clover in my lawn. along the fence i have sweet yellow, crimson, & prairie clovers. i even planted a European dandelion. i have some seasonal bloomers like Asian poppies & my fruit trees but the long term bloomers are the mainstays. you cannot check my beds of arugula, Russian sage, oregano, moonflowers ( in the evening ), cosmos, potentilla shrubs, hyssops, camelina, basil, & borage & not find a lot of bees working them-ever. when the linden tree blooms you can hear it buzzing from 40' or more with younger ears. i might sound like a broken record ( remember those? ) but i really believe that it's true. i have a friend in the inner city that's kind of a dead zone garden-wise. he's surrounded by chem lawn signs & perfectly manicured zoysia & as of yet has not gotten a full super of honey & has to feed heavily every fall. i know someone else that is close to the botanical gardens & he averages 3 supers per hive. also having good forage nearby means less wear & tear on the bees. that's my story & i'm sticking to it!
